


Promise Me

by bunch_of_foxgloves



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Genderfluid Pidge | Katie Holt, Trans Character, Trans Lance, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 07:37:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11824086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunch_of_foxgloves/pseuds/bunch_of_foxgloves
Summary: "Pidge and I are leaving," Hunk said, not slowing at all for explanation as he started to pack a bag for Pidge as well."You're... What? Why?!" Lance asked.Hunk glanced at the entrance before he approached Lance and began to whisper, "It's Pidge. We can't stay here.""Why not?" Lance asked, lowering his voice as well. "She's been here for years.""It's..." Hunk trailed off after that, hesitant to reveal the secret. "What's the worst thing you can think of? Yeah, that."





	Promise Me

"Be quiet!" A woman on a high platform yelled down to them. "Line up in twelve groups and shut up for a second!"

Excitement and apprehension buzzed around Lance as people rushed to try to get in first. If not for his tired, slow company, he wouldn't have been one of the stragglers but today both Hunk and Pidge were oddly lethargic, like they'd just failed a marathon or something. Now, as a result of them dragging their feet, they were dead last, giving them all the chance to think about anything and everything, including why the universe existed, why they existed, and, finally, why they attended a facility with so many time-consuming security measures.

Honestly, Lance had long forgotten the reason he was here, if there was a reason to begin with. Sure enough, it kept him well educated and prepared to deal with many dangerous situations but that came with the downside of his parents likely being broke and never seeing him again. He didn't even want to be here. What was the point of English language and literature when no careers required more than basic knowledge? Lance was as keen a learner as anyone but that was only for subjects that he actually cared about.

Some days, he even wanted to run away. Then, he could go to his family and they'd all protect each other and spend their time doing something more meaningful and chat about all he'd missed while he was away and it'd all feel fuzzy and familiar. Most of those days, though, he reluctantly convinced himself not to. They sent him here for a reason after all, even if Lance couldn't quite recall that reason. And at least here there was a working washing machine so his binders didn't get too grimy (he remembered back at home his parents had trouble keeping up with the huge amounts of laundry and almost missed that trouble).

Finally, a guard gestured for him to walk through one of the twelve entrances in the second gate. There were three outside gates in total and they were the worst section of the place; it was freezing cold, often with snow on the ground, and it took longer to get through each gate the closer he got to the end of it. He was given a blood pressure test and if he showed any abnormalities to his usual state, he also had to go through a blood test before he was allowed in. This was to ensure he wasn't infected. Thank fuck he wasn't.

He didn't really know what he'd do if he ever got infected. They didn't teach that. Instead, they just taught him various ways to prevent infection that apparently worked about 95% of the time. He didn't like the chances of anything that wasn't 100% but he was told that was just what worked best, so he did that, despite his wariness. Hunk and Pidge, his roommates of three years, were even more sceptical of this idea and they told Lance every night in whispers while their fourth roommate scowled at them (even in his sleep).

As he gradually moved through the third gate to building 6 in silence, he could feel his bones quivering with exhaustion. No doubt that Hunk and Pidge felt the same with their own soft steps and slouches.

"Are you guys heading back to our room or getting some food?" Lance asked, entirely sure that he'd collapse if he did anything but lie down for a bit.

"Food," Pidge said.

"Room," Hunk said.

Lance gifted them with a halfhearted laugh, since, really, he'd expected the opposite. He then gave them a questioning look, which they both ignored in favour of going to their respective destinations. They'd tell him if they planned to sneak out again to steal more information though (probably), so instead of dwelling on it, he followed Hunk to their room, did the blood test to get in, then watched him re-pack a rucksack, which was something that really got Lance's attention. Hunk was known for packing before he went to bed so he'd have more time for breakfast but what made him the most suspicious was the toothbrush. They weren't even going outside of the gates tomorrow, why would Hunk pack his toothbrush for that?

"Dude, tomorrow's a class day," Lance reminded him.

"Yeah, I know," Hunk said, which only confused Lance further.

"So, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Pidge and I are leaving," Hunk said, not slowing at all for explanation as he started to pack a bag for Pidge as well.

"You're... What? Why?!" Lance asked.

Hunk glanced at the entrance before he approached Lance and began to whisper, "It's Pidge. We can't stay here."

"Why not?" Lance asked, lowering his voice as well. "She's been here for years."

"It's..." Hunk trailed off after that, hesitant to reveal the secret. "What's the worst thing you can think of? Yeah, that."

"Is it the... is she infected?"

Hunk nodded, a grim expression surfacing onto his face. He guessed that Pidge had found a way to trick the system into not giving her a blood pressure test correctly but it wasn't like Pidge would endanger everyone's lives so selfishly. That meant she must have some time left. And they must be going down the West Tunnel soon (immediately, it seemed, by the way Hunk was throwing stuff into the bags).

"Hold on a sec," Lance said. "You're leaving without me?"

"We thought you wouldn't want to risk your life for this," Hunk replied. "I know you trust us and everything but you're safe here already."

"No," Lance said. "I'm- I'm going with you. Just give me a second to pack."

"As much as I'd love you to come, dude, some of Pidge's family is waiting for us," Hunk said. "We'll be fine by ourselves."

"No, I'm going. Just tell me what I need." Lance said.

"Get some better gear on and you're good," Hunk said after looking over to scan his outfit.

Lance personally thought the clothes he'd just gone outside of the gates in would be suitable, considering that's where they were returning to, but supposed extra protection couldn't hurt. After all, where they're going, they don't have armed guards to accompany them. Still, Lance preferred to wear lighter things. He pulled on some leather gloves and some short leather arm guards as well as some ankle guards (which, honestly, wouldn't be as useful but he'd prefer to keep his ankles unbroken) and decided that would suffice. Hunk wasn't nearly as satisfied as Lance but only decided to add a thin coat and scarf, so he counted it as a success.

Without even a last-second rummage through the room, Lance was pulled away urgently. They met Pidge at the food hall, where she was sneakily stuffing two rucksacks full of food, as sneakily as anyone could stuff rucksacks full of food. With one glance between them, it was understood that their time had run out. They had to leave now if they wanted to spend Pidge's last moments away from the guards' gunfire. Pidge nodded and joined them without a word.

In this uncomfortable silence, they proceeded towards the tunnel. The only time anyone spoke was when Pidge muttered something to the guards that caused them to push the three right through the gates into the surprisingly well-lit tunnel. On the inside, guards patrolled down the light grey tile with their own flashlights, accompanied by two dogs each, searching for those who weren't lucky enough to make it through before they turned. Lance wondered, with disgust, how they cleaned the place with this much danger but didn't have long to think before Hunk tapped his shoulder. Right. They had to go.

Although the tunnel wasn't supposed to be very long, their miserable traipse away from the garrison certainly made it seem so. By the time they were at the '10 mins to go!!!' point, there was a refreshments stop. A window of thick glass with a small flap showed a menu of drinks and a man with a gun. Cereal bars and crisps lined the bottom of the window. They each ordered a hot drink from the man on Pidge's instruction and sat down to wait. Before long, two others showed up, one struggling to support the other's bulkier body.

Pidge moved to stand in front of him and demanded, "What happened to Shiro?!"

"You're late," Lance said, not unkindly.

"We ran into some trouble," the stranger said. "I think he'll be fine though. It isn't like he'll get infected now, is it?"

"It isn't certain," Pidge said, frowning. "You can't just fall back on that all the time and trust he'll be alright."

"Yeah," Hunk said. "We have to get out of here for a start. They'll kill him, you know, if he's 'asleep' for too long. And we should keep watching him while we walk. You never know."

"Sure, just give me a second," the stranger said. "I've been outside carrying this guy for a while."

"Lance! You can help carry Shiro. And maybe Hunk can help too if something happens." Said Pidge.

"Yep, just let me catch my breath and we'll move," the stranger said.

"But this guy - Shiro - could die here!" Lance exclaimed.

"And he'll definitely die if we go out without a break!"

"They're already giving us weird looks, asshole. Stop shouting!" Lance said.

"My name is Keith," Keith said. "And you're shouting louder!"

"Both of you stop shouting," Hunk said. "It isn't just guards out there to worry about."

"Fine, let's go," Keith said.

"Fine, come on Keith. Help me carry Shiro." Lance said.

"Don't you need to, like, take off your you-know-what?" Pidge asked Lance, glancing at Keith while she struggled to word it subtly. "You'll be running out there."

"Do you see a place that I can use to change?" Lance asked. "I'll put up with it. We'll be fine, really."

"Maybe Hunk would be a better choice," Keith said.

"No, no," Lance said. "I can save Shiro."

"You mean 'we'?" Keith said, though, he picked up Shiro without further argument.

They were really gathering attention now. Among the people staring at them, there was the man behind the glass screen, a lady dressed in about five different coats, a girl with a crisp halfway to her mouth, and someone with skin that was starting to look almost grey. Lance started to return their stare to watch them closer when Pidge interrupted him.

She tapped the table frantically while, in a hushed voice, she said, "we have to go right now. Look, he's twitching slightly. Look at his fingers. Look, quickly."

Lance took his gaze down further to eye the man's hand and by the looks of things, his hands were indeed shaking and twitching on the table in front of him. Slowly returning to his face, Lance saw more things that worried him. A shoulder jolted, then he looked around the room to try to disguise his head twitching. Blood flowed out of his bitten lips and his eyes were overflowing with fear that had already began to spill down his face in rivulets.

Everyone at their table rose from their seats with Pidge's warning. No more discussion was needed when the man looked so eerily close to death. It might not only be the man dying, afterall.

"Would've liked to stay longer," Keith muttered, like he was annoyed at the dying man for taking away his coffee. Not even Lance replied to the insensitive comment as he joined Keith by Shiro's side. It wasn't worth it. They had to move now (you bet he'd chew him out later though).

They soon reached the exit of the tunnel, which, Lance noticed, was three times as guarded as the way in. Each guard they passed eyed the group, giving them dubious looks. Lance could feel himself trying to curl in on himself with each new stare but for some reason they were never stopped. Despite this and Keith's hissed warnings and glares, he instinctively walked faster. Any suspicion about them was justified, wasn't it? They were carrying a huge unconscious guy with multiple scars who looked about on the brink of death! The guards could totally shoot them right now and face no consequences for it. He would know. Even if he hadn't been a guard himself, rumours seeped out of every crack in the Garrison.

"Lance, stop thinking so hard. You might hurt yourself." Keith said, struggling to hold back a smirk at what he thought was a smart remark.

"Oh, I'll hurt you in a minute!" Lance said. But he stopped acting all paranoid, even if the thoughts wouldn't disappear. Why did Keith act like he was better than him anyway? He could worry about things if he wanted to and it didn't make Keith any better than him, not even slightly.

"Are we nearly there yet?" asked Pidge.

"Already?" Keith asked. "But yeah, we are. Tonight, we're staying about five minutes away from here."

"Tonight?" Hunk asked. "What about the next night?"

"I don't know yet," Keith said.

"You mean you have absolutely no plans?" Hunk asked, though he didn't seem surprised.

Keith glanced at some guards pointedly then said under his breath, "we can talk about that later."

Lance, meanwhile, was still marvelling at the fact they hadn't been stopped by a single guard. Even if he wasn't worrying about it, he couldn't help but be curious and he was absolutely sure that both Pidge and Hunk were at least slightly confused. Why wouldn't Keith just tell him? Would it matter that much if they were overheard by the guards? They'd never be told his ideas at this rate. Well, maybe he really would tell them later but five minutes away wasn't far enough to escape the ears of the Garrison.

They were almost completely out of the tunnel's security system by now with one more gate to go. These gates usually took hours to get through but Lance hadn't been in such a small group before. Plus, the guards seemed to treat them differently here, shoving them to the other side as fast as was physically possible, like they wanted to be rid of the group. Lance didn't really understand it (wasn't sure that he wanted to when it felt so beyond his understanding).

When they had finally walked a fair distance away from the gates, Keith stopped, apparently deciding to go ahead with his plan of not going very far at all. The place he'd picked to stay at had its own upsides and downsides, which Lance as well as both Pidge and Hunk had been trained to spot in case they ever ran into an emergency. This mess, Lance thought, definitely qualified as an emergency but the house was a bad idea. He didn't know why but he wanted the Garrison as far away from him as could get it. Would they try and get him back? Maybe he should've asked that before he left but late was better than never, he supposed.

"Are we free now?" He asked Pidge and Hunk, but it wasn't them who gave him his answer.

"You're free," Keith said. "So don't go back."

**Author's Note:**

> the uploading will honestly be irregular and sporadic at best but, here, have it. 
> 
> also ik my writing is a bit weird sometimes because before editing it's usually so vague that even i don't understand what I'm on about. bear with me though! tell me if I'm being weirdly vague (...and this is why i probably failed my English gcse lol).


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